Line finder with cutouts representing symbols



March 24, 1970 cagHOPP 3,502,189

LINE FINDER WITH CUTOUTS REPRESENTING SYMBOLS Filed Dec. 22, 1966 Q mumm/O illllllllllllllllllllllhlll-llillllll Ill FIGZ

j "i 4 I lHlHlill CL CL 01 Ho IIHIIHiHHI ATTORNEY Ila lob 1g} FIGJUnited States Patent U.S. Cl. 197-113 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE Symbols are drawn on a paper sheet supported by the platen ofa typewriter carriage by following with a writing implement the outlinesof different cutouts in the line finders of the typewriter. The symbolcan be placed on any selected portion of the paper sheet by moving thecarriage or turning the platen.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to animprovement of the line finders provided on standard typewriters onopposite sides of the typing area.

When technical, chemical or other scientific texts are typed, it isoften necessary to insert symbols which are either freely drawn, or madeby means of templates. Where the symbols have to fit into the textlines, the template can only be used in the upper part of the sheetwhile the same is still mounted on the platen of the carriage and sincethe lower third of the sheet is not accessible for a template, the sheethas to be removed from the typewriter before the symbol can be drawnwith the aid of a template. If several sheets with carbon papers areused, the removal of such a stack of sheets causes a relativedisplacement of the copy sheets, so that the symbol cannot besimultaneously reproduced at exactly the same point of the previouslywritten lines. It is also possible to first draw the symbols, and thenreinsert the stack to type the lines of the last third of the sheet inposition corresponding to the positions of the previously drawn symbols.Frequently, the desired exact line spacing and the vertical alignment ofthe imprints are lost when the paper stack is taken out, and thenreinserted. Since the relative displacement of the copy sheets canhardly be avoided, it is usually necessary to draw the symbolsseparately for each copy sheet and the original.

That the drawing of symbols in a position fitting into a typewrittentext is so complicated and time-consuming, is not only due to the factthat the template cannot be used in the lower third of the insertedsheet. Even if the symbols are drawn in the typewritten text by the useof a template while the sheets are inserted, the typed letters areprecisely spaced in accordance with the carriage steps and the linespacing steps of the platen, while the template is manually held so thatthe drawn symbols do not precisely fit into the regular pattern of thetyped imprints.

The German Patent No. 627,748 discloses the provision of typefacesrepresenting chemical and other symbols. The disadvantage of such anarrangement is that only a limited number of symbols can be providedsince the number of types is limited. Furthermore, other standardsymbols have to be omitted so that the typewriter becomes a specialmachine which can be used only for special texts.

It is also known to provide guide bores in stationary parts of thetypewriter into which a pencil point can be inserted so that horizontallines are drawn by moving the paper carriage in writing direction, andvertical lines are drawn by turning the platen with the paper sheet. TheGerman Patents No. 673,487, No. 338,614, No. 385,565, No. 322,028, andU.S. Patent No. 2,551,346 disclose such arrangements which, however, donot permit the drawing of the entire outline of a particular symbol suchas a hexagonal symbol used in chemistry, or a circle.

It is also known to mount writing implements on the frame of thetypewriter for drawing horizontal and vertical lines. The GermanGebrauchsmuster 1,762,039, and the U.S. Patents No. 2,670,832, No.2,581,167, and No. 2,670,067 disclose such constructions which, however,cannot replace a template having the outlines of the required symbols.

It has also been proposed to mount eraser templates on the typewritermoveable between an operative position covering a portion of theinserted sheet, and a retracted inoperative position in which writingoperations are carried out. Such an eraser template provides a smallopening of the size of a typed letter to permit the erasure of a wrongletter without impairing the appearance of adjacent letters. The U.S.Patent No. 2,558,147 and the German Gebrauchsmuster 1,677,454 discloseeraser constructions.

The constructions of the prior art are all provided for the drawing ofhorizontal or vertical lines, or for the erasing of letters. They do notpermit the drawing of the outline of the symbol which is at the presentstate of the art accomplished by a manually operated template which, asexplained above, requires the removal of the paper sheet from thetypewriter, and produces symbols which are not spaced and dimensioned inaccordance with the typed letters.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is one object of the invention to overcomethe disadvantages of prior art constructions, and to provide atypewriter with means permitting the drawing of symbols on an insertedstack of paper sheets in proper relation to the text lines of theoriginal and carbon copies.

Another object of the invention is to permit the drawing of circles,hexagons and slanted lines on a paper sheet inserted into a typewriter.

Standard typewriters have a pair of line finders arranged aligned in thedirection of the lines of the typewriter text on opposite sides of thetyping area. The line finders are usually made of a transparentsynthetic material and provided along an edge with graduations spaced inaccordance with the carriage steps and the spacing between typedletters. When a paper sheet is reinserted or displaced, the edge of theline finder, and the graduations on the same, permit the mounting of thesheet in a position in which new imprints will be spaced and arranged inthe order of previously made imprints.

The present invention relates to an improvement of the line finders of atypewriter, or like business machine. In accordance with the invention,different cutouts are provided in the line finder and are bounded byedges forming the outlines of different symbols. By movement of thepaper carriage, or by turning of the platen, or by both operations, anyselected cutout representing a desired symbol can be placed on anyselected portion of the sheet. By manually guiding the point of thewriting implement along the edges of the selected cutout, the outline ofthe desired symbol is drawn on the selected portion of the sheet.Preferably, at least some of the cutouts have hexagonal and circularshapes of difierent size. In order to obtain drawn symbols which fitinto the pattern of the typed letters in line direction and verticaldirection, the corners between adjacent edges of the cutouts, and theextremities of the cutouts, are spaced from each other in the directionof the carriage movement corresponding to the length of the carriagesteps, and in the direction of the turning movement of the platen,distances corresponding to the spacing between the lines and to theheight of the letters. The corners and extremities of the cutouts areplaced in a predetermined relationship with the graduations along theedge of the line finder which indicate the positions of the letters inthe direction of the lines. In the dimensioning of the cutouts and forthe placement of the same on the line finders, the usual thickness ofthe point of a writing implement, such as a ball point pen, has to beconsidered since it is not possible to draw a line along an edge of acutout directly under the edge. Therefore, a hexagon drawn along theedges of a hexagonal cutout, will be slightly smaller than the cutout,and the dimensions of the drawn symbol have to correspond to the spacingbetween adjacent letters and to the height of the same, as explainedabove.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for theinvention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. Theinvention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method ofoperation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, willbe best understood from the following description of specificembodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a fragmentary front viewillustrating a pair of line finders according to one embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view illustrating symbols drawn on a paper sheetby means of corresponding cutouts in the line finders; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating the position ofthe line finders on the frame of a typewriter.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As shown in FIG. 3, a standardtypewriter has a pair of line finders 1 and 2 mounted on the machinehousing and frame 50 on opposite sides of the typing area 3 and closelyadjacent the platen 4 which is mounted for turning movement on a papercarriage 5. The edges of the line finders 1 and 2 extend parallel to thedirection of carriage movement, which is also the direction of the typedlines. A paper sheet 20 is held by pressure rollers 6 on the platen 4 sothat by turning of knob 7, the platen 4 is turned and the paper sheet 20moved in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the edges1a, 1b and 2a, 2b of the line finders 1 and 2 extend.

Line finders 1 and 2 are shown on an enlarged scale in FIG. 1. Each linefinder 1, 2 has cutouts, and in the illustrated embodiment which is usedfor typing chemical texts, hexagonal cutouts 10, pentagonal cutouts 11,11' and circular cutouts 12 of different sizes are provided. Some of thepolygonal cutouts, for example, 11, 11' are placed in different angularpositions. Triangular cutouts 13, and slanted slot shaped cutouts 14 arealso provided. Holes 15 position the writing implement in a known mannerduring the drawing of vertical and horizontal lines.

Line finders 1 and 2 have graduations 1c and 2c along the longitudinaledges 1a and 2a thereof, and preferably corresponding graduations, notshown, are also provided on the other longitudinal edges 1b and 2b ofthe line finders 1 and 2.

The symbols 10a, 11a, 12a, 13a, 11a appearing in FIG. 2 above thecorresponding cutouts 10, 11, 12, 13, 11' in FIG. 1 are plane figuresdrawn on a paper sheet by moving the point of a writing implement, suchas a ball point pen, along the edges of the cutouts 10 to 13. Theslanted lines 14a can be drawn by moving the writing point along slots14. The symbol 13a is drawn by following two edges of a triangularcutout 13. As clearly shown in the drawing, the distances betweendiametrically opposite points of any cutout 10, 11 or 12 aresubstantially greater than the thickness of a line drawn by the writingpoint so that portions 10b, 11b, or 12b of a sheet are surrounded by thedrawn outlines 10a, 11a, 12a, respectively.

The cutouts 10 to 13 and slots 14 are positioned in the line finders 1,2 in a predetermined relation to the line spacing obtained by turningplaten 4 by operation of knob 7 and the conventional stepping wheel. Thecorners and extremities of the cutouts 10, 11, 12, for example, arespaced in the direction of the carriage movement, dis tancescorresponding to the carriage steps and the spacing of the graduations1c, 20 and the spacing of the typed letters and being greater than onecarriage step. Consequently, it is possible to type a line to the pointwhere a symbol has to be inserted, to turn the platen 4 several linespaces until the typed line is horizontally aligned with the cutouts 10to 13 in the line finders, and to move the carriage until the respectivepoint of the typed line is located under the selected cutout, whereuponthe symbol is drawn by moving the writing implement along the edges ofthe cutout. The thus drawn symbol will fit exactly into the pattern ofthe lines and typed letters, and the platen 4 and the carriage 5 can bereturned to the previous position and the typing of the line continued,with the newly typed letters located, for example, at the height of acorner of the drawn symbol.

It is also possible to move a selected portion of the paper sheet 20under a selected first cutout, and then to move a portion of the sheetadjacent the first selected portion under another cutout to combine twosymbols whereupon the platen and carriage are returned to the initialposition and the typing of the line is continued. For example, apentagonal cutout 11' may be used for drawing the symbol 11a whereuponslots 14 are used to draw lines 14a connected with symbol 11a.

Instead of chemical symbols, it may be desired to draw electric symbols,and cutouts representing the shape of the signals for switches,resistors, condensers or coils may be provided instead of theillustrated cutouts. As desired for other technical subjects, cutoutsrepresenting symbols used for valves or pistons, cutouts representingarchitectural standard symbols, and cutouts representing the plan viewsof furniture may be used.

The illustrated embodiment of the invention is applied to a typewriter.However, line finder templates according to the invention may be mountedon other business machines, for example billing machines, accountingmachines, requiring particular symbols in the text. When the line findertemplate of the present invention is used in business machines, it is nolonger necessary to provide special keys for special symbols.

Itwill be understood that each of the elements described above, or twoor more together, may also find a useful application in other types ofbusiness machines differing from the types described above.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent isset forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a business machine, in combination, a frame; a paper carriagemounted on said frame for movement in one direction; a platen mounted onsaid paper carriage turnable predetermined angular distances in adirection transverse to the direction of movement of said carriage, andbeing adapted to support a sheet so that lines typed on said sheet havepredetermined distances from each other; at least one line findermounted on said frame and located on said sheet, said line finder havingat least one cutout bounded by edges forming the peripheral outline of aplane figure representing a symbol, the extremities of said cutout beingdisposed and spaced from each other in said transverse directioncorresponding to said predetermined distances so that by movement ofsaid paper carriage and turning of said platen, any selected portion ofsaid sheet can be placed under said cutout at least partially surroundedby said edges whereby by manually guiding the point of a writingimplement along said edges of said cutout while said carriage and saidplaten are at a standstill, the outline of the desired symbol is drawnabout said selected portion of said sheet, the size of said cutout beingselected so that diametrically opposite points of said edges are spacedfrom each other distances substantially greater than the thickness ofsaid drawn outline.

2. A business machine as defined in claim 1 wherein said paper carriagemoves in a writing direction in steps having a predetermined length,wherein the corners of said cutout between two adjacent edges are spacedfrom each other in the direction of the carriage movement a distancegreater than said predetermined length of said steps, and whereincorners of said cutout between adjacent edges are spaced from each otherin said direction of carriage movement and in said transverse directiondistances which are, respectively, multiples of the width and heightofletters typed on said sheet.

3. A business machine as defined in claim 1 wherein a plurality ofdifferent cutouts is provided in said line finder, said cutouts havingedges and corners disposed so that the symbols of the respective cutoutscan be combined to form a new symbol.

4. The business machine of claim 1 including another line finder havinga cutout, said line finders being aligned in the writing direction ofsaid paper carriage and located on opposite sides of the central typingarea of the typewriter.

5. A business machine as defined in claim 1 wherein said edges includeedges extending at an angle to the direction of carriage movement and tothe direction of the turning movement of the platen.

6. A business machine as defined in claim 1, said line finder includinga plurality of cutouts, wherein said cutouts include hexagonal andcircular cutouts.

7. A business machine as defined in claim 1 wherein said paper carriagemoves in a writing direction in steps having a predetermined length,wherein the corners of said cutout between two adjacent edges are spacedfrom each other in the direction of the carriage movement a distancegreater than said predetermined length of said steps, and whereincorners of said cutout between adjacent edges are spaced from each otherin said direction of carriage movement and in said transverse directiondistances which are, respectively, multiplies of the width and height ofletters typed on said sheet, wherein said line finder is transparent andhas an elongated edge extending in the direction of the carriagemovement and having graduatrons indicating the length of the carriagesteps and the letter distances, and wherein said line finder has aplurality of cutouts, the extremities of said cutouts being disposed inthe direction of carriage movement so that the extremities of drawnsymbols are aligned with corresponding graduations in the direction ofthe turning movement of the platen.

8. A business machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein said paper carriageis mounted on said frame for movement in said one direction in steps ofa predetermined length; and wherein the extremities of said cutout arespaced from each other in said one direction a distance equal to amultiple of said predetermined length of said steps.

9. A business machine as claimed in claim 8 wherein said line finder hasan elongated edge extending in said one direction and having graduationsindicating said length of said steps; wherein said line finder has aplurality of cutouts, the extremities of said cutouts being disposed insaid one direction of carriage movement so that the extremities of drawnsymbols are aligned in said transverse direction of the turning movementof said platen with corresponding graduations.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,199,228 9/1916 Anderson 197-1351,219,269 3/1917 Drew 197-135 1,439,708 12/1922 Orr 197-8 1,615,180 1/1927 Stewart 33-104 2,010,198 8/1935 Rice 33-104 2,693,035 11/1954 Beck33-174 993,681 5/ 1911 Hess. 1,397,544 11/1921 Peterson 197-1902,060,327 11/ 1936 Landis 197-194 X 3,035,680 5/ 1962 Fondiller 197-190FOREIGN PATENTS 266,969 8/1929 Italy.

ERNEST T. WRIGHT, 111., Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 197-190, 194-

